The legendary Red Devils coach: The road to success

Chapter 32: The Living Beings on the Beam

"Ferguson hopes that every player will think about what kind of life they will have after seeing this work. He hopes that everyone will show courage when facing difficulties, and that they can get along well with their partners, trust and rely on their teammates, and fight for their partners."

--Inscription

Ferguson took over in a hurry. After arriving in Manchester, he did not choose the office of former coach Atkinson, but asked the club to arrange a new office for him.

The Red Devils club's office area at Old Trafford is huge, but Ferguson chose a corner location. The office is not large and unobtrusive, the only difference is that it is close to the training ground. Ferguson is concerned that he can quickly handle business in this office and watch the games and training at any time.

Ferguson also had the same idea in his office at the Carrington base. His office was very close to the training ground, and he could see the games and training of the youth players and reserve team at a glance.

Ferguson has been working here for more than 20 years since he came to the Red Devils.

As a top club, the Red Devils provide many offices for each manager. Ferguson's offices at Old Trafford and Carrington have not been renovated much, and basically remain the same as when he first took over, except for some sofas and equipment updates.

The Theatre of Dreams later underwent several expansions and renovations, and the Red Devils became the most successful club in the world. The club significantly increased the number of boxes and provided luxurious offices for the board of directors, but Ferguson's office remained there and has not been moved except for temporary repairs.

After Ferguson selected the office, he specially hung a painting on the wall of the office - to be precise, it was a photograph, a photograph selected by Ferguson himself.

This photograph is very special. First of all, it is huge in size, bold in composition, and the characters have strong characteristics. The whole picture has a strong impact. Although it is in black and white, the image itself has special content and is Ferguson’s favorite material.

This huge photograph is realistic and straightforward, which will surprise and shock all visitors.

What kind of photograph is that? What is the content of the picture?

Before discussing this work, let's do a task.

Suppose you were placed on a single steel beam over 100 meters high, with no safety rope, no safety belt, no pads underneath, and no safety measures, would you panic, would you be desperate and helpless? Some explorers with special skills might enjoy this, and some extreme athletes might take it easy, but what if you are just an ordinary worker?

If you are hundreds of feet high in the air, on a single steel beam, besides yourself, there are many of your partners around you, all of whom are your co-workers. Your life is closely linked to theirs, and your safety is not only determined by you, but also by them; not only that, you also dominate the fate of everyone, and any mistake you make will lead to danger, and even kill everyone. At high altitude, on a slender steel beam, any mistake made by anyone will inevitably put everyone in danger, and even lose their lives.

How would you deal with such a situation?

Will you remain calm and composed? Will you fully trust your partners and take on the trust of your coworkers? Will you face it bravely and have confidence in the future?

The above are just assumptions, but they have actually happened in history.

In history, there really were construction workers who worked on steel beams hundreds of meters high without safety ropes. Not only that, these workers even walked together in the air for a long time and got used to this environment. These construction workers and their partners walked back and forth on the steel beams hundreds of meters high every day, and even rested and chatted on them.

This is not a joke, nor is it a movie. This is real life, recorded in real images. More than 70 years ago in the United States, countless workers faced such a situation in the giant construction site of Manhattan skyscrapers. That was their daily life, full of danger and hardship.

Day after day, they work at high altitudes, walk on steel beams, operate on cantilevers, sit on steel beams to rest, smoke, and chat with their colleagues about life. They have no insurance, no safety ropes, no protective measures, and even no helmets. They work hard every day to build skyscrapers. This is a microcosm of the United States in the 30s, a portrait of workers in the era of American construction. Their living environment is extremely bad and their working conditions are extremely dangerous, which urgently needs public attention and improvement.

Thus, this visually impactful photo was created by Charles Ebbets, an American journalist and photographer. This is a set of real photos taken by Charles Ebbets during the construction of the Rockefeller Center in New York in 1932. Later, he collectively called this group of photos "Men on a girder" (or "Lunch Atop a Skyscraper", which means "people on the beam" in Chinese). The photo Ferguson got is the representative work of the entire series and the most outstanding one. This work "People on the Girder" is also translated as "Lunch Time in Manhattan" and "Workers Building Manhattan", which truly records such a special fragment. Under the vast sky, 11 construction workers stayed more than meters high in the air and rested on a steel beam that was less than one meter wide and stretched out in the air. They were completely fearless of danger and calmly enjoyed their lunch and spent their rare leisure time. They were either sitting and smoking, or reading newspapers, or chatting, or gazing into the distance... At the moment they entered the camera, everyone looked relaxed, full of confidence and courage.

Charles Alberts is a famous American journalist who has always adhered to the style of critical realism. His intention of shooting is not to show the bravery and fearlessness of the workers, but to expose and criticize the darkness of society. Between 1920 and 1935, the golden years of the great economic development of the United States, a large number of skyscrapers were newly built in New York. This was originally good news for construction workers, but during the construction process, the owners and contractors were profit-driven and did not care about the lives of the workers at all. There was no protection for the workers working on the high-rise buildings, and no proper compensation and appeasement for various work-related injuries and deaths. At that time, American business owners, especially construction bosses, squeezed and grabbed this "bloody profit", and all kinds of situations were shocking. The extremely dangerous working conditions and extremely difficult working environment in the construction industry soon attracted the attention of journalists with social conscience and sense of justice, and then became a topic of criticism for the whole society. Charles Alberts took these photos, which truly reflected the dangers of on-site construction, criticized the lack of construction safety measures, exposed the indifference of society to construction safety, and fully demonstrated the extremely dangerous working environment and extremely difficult life of construction workers.

On October 1932, 10, the International Herald Tribune published this group of photos and related text reports, which immediately caused a huge social response. Many social celebrities criticized it, saying, "It is immoral to put countless construction workers in danger," "How many innocent souls will wander in every high-rise building?", "Resist the high-rise buildings built by construction workers with their lives!" Under pressure, the US government had to quickly improve construction safety standards, protect workers' safety, and effectively improve the working environment. Construction unions and insurance companies also actively intervened, and law firms and prosecutors began to intervene in related cases. The US's safety protection for construction workers has rapidly improved.

Since then, there has been no such scene on construction sites across the United States. The publication of this set of photos and the subsequent photography exhibition, as well as the subsequent labor movement, and the efforts of American social institutions have brought the safety rights of American workers to a new level. This set of photos therefore has important social and historical value. This is a shocking scene in the history of American workers and an indispensable page in the history of construction around the world.

History has turned a new page, and later people began to pay attention to the other meanings of these photos. After all, apart from the heavy historical background, these photos themselves are extremely visually impactful, and they also directly express the bravery and optimism of the working class, and contain a broader spiritual connotation.

This group of photos is full of the workers' optimism. Their bravery and fearlessness, their contempt for all difficulties, are directly expressed through simple composition, creating a more intuitive shock. Facing challenges with confidence, actively overcoming difficulties, despising dangers, and facing hardships, this photo is full of unique optimism and the spirit of hard work and progress. The heroism and optimism of the working class, the unity and trust among workers... These unique spiritual connotations are what the original author Charles Alberts did not expect, and this is also the unique value of "Beams".

Ferguson discovered this photo by chance, immediately bought it, and hung it in his office.

This photo has become the undisputed focal point of Ferguson's office. Visitors will be stunned by this huge black and white photograph. Ferguson deliberately enlarged the photo to almost half the size of the wall, and the characters in the photo are almost life-size, making the photo more impactful. This photograph is straightforward, with gray and white as the main color tone, complex and simple composition, heavy but relaxed atmosphere, single and multi-dimensional angles, and the protagonists are a group but also like individuals, which wonderfully combines various contradictions. Ferguson hopes to convey this to everyone through this photo, especially hoping that the players can be inspired.

What does Ferguson want this photograph to express? Or, does it contain Ferguson's team-building ideas?

Ferguson certainly hid his own hopes in this work. He wanted to tell everyone that this is the team he wanted. The Red Devils players must have the hard-working spirit of workers, the spirit of struggle, the courage to despise everything, and the courage to overcome all difficulties. Ferguson hopes that the team will unite and forge ahead, and the players must fully trust their teammates and actively fight for the team. Ferguson reminded everyone that they must have team spirit, and that the team is greater than the individual, which is an unchangeable principle, and no one is allowed to override the club.

Ferguson was very persistent in these spiritual aspects, self-confidence and unity, struggle and improvement, courage and responsibility - these glorious traditions have influenced generations of Red Devils players. No matter how many people come and go at Old Trafford, or how many times the lineup changes, "Ferguson's football philosophy" is passed down from generation to generation and respected by everyone.

After Ferguson led the Red Devils to the top of Europe, he still adhered to these ideas. Ferguson later said in an interview with L'Equipe, "Why did I sign Evra, Keane, Anderson, Rooney and even Giggs... these players? I want to emphasize that there is a very important reason, that is, they all have working-class backgrounds. I hope that the Red Devils I build have some characteristics. I hope that the players will remember their origins, the difficult environment in which they grew up, and the expectations of their parents, grandparents and relatives. I hope they know where they come from and what they are fighting for. I always hope to carry forward the advantages of the class, that is, the strong fighting spirit. Regardless of whether the players have succeeded, I hope they can stay true to themselves, continue to fight, and keep moving forward."

This is why Ferguson attaches so much importance to this work, and it is also his expectation for the players, club staff and Red Devils fans. He hopes that everyone can feel the source of strength in it, and be inspired by it and bravely overcome difficulties.